Legislators turn heat on cancer agency

AUSTIN - Key Texas lawmakers added to the pressure on the state cancer agency Thursday, calling out representatives about conflicts of interest and bypassed procedures and demanding assurances that no more such problems will surface.

"It's a disappointment that we're even having this meeting, that we have to bring this matter before the (House appropriations) committee," said Rep. James Keffer, R-Eastland, a co-author of the legislation that created the $3 billion Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas,

"We have to because (our) integrity has been challenged, our integrity is in question," said Keffer. "I don't feel there's been anything criminal, I don't feel there's been anything underhanded. But what we've seen is unacceptable."

The meeting of the committee that will ultimately decide whether to fund the agency for the coming biennium came one day after CPRIT said it would stop awarding grants until it can assure the public it is conducting its business properly.

The moratorium was requested by Gov. Rick Perry, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and House Speaker Joe Straus.

The controversy principally stems from two commercialization grants awarded by the agency, totaling more than $30 million in taxpayer money, that didn't undergo the peer review considered essential to agency awards. Both have been halted.

Further scrutiny has followed reports about conflicts of interest involving a foundation established to supplement the salaries of top cancer agency officials.

No-shows at hearing

Numerous committee members raised concerns about the foundation's policy of keeping donors' names confidential. Pressing CPRIT officials about whether any donors were affiliated with grant winners, the members suggested such confidentiality is not in keeping with the 2013 Legislature's planned emphasis on transparency.

"The pay-to-play potential - maybe there should be more division" between the foundation and the agency, suggested Rep. Myra Crownover, R-Lake Dallas.

Notably absent from the hearing were CPRIT board chairman Jimmy Mansour, who'd had a recent death in the family, and vice chairman Dr. Joseph Bailes, also out of town. Not invited were its three recently departed top staffers: executive director Bill Gimson, chief commercialization officer Jerry Cobbs and chief scientific officer Al Gilman.

'Don't go there with us'

The agency was represented by its chief operating officer, compliance officer, general counsel and board member Barbara Canales, who is also on the CPRIT foundation board.

Canales declared she favors making donors' names public, but said confidentiality is standard industry policy to protect donors from unwanted solicitations.

She warned that while CPRIT has complied with the request to stop awarding grants, "people are dying while we wait" - and was met with a sharp retort.

"Don't go there with us," said Rep. Sylvester Turner, a Houston Democrat. "My dad died of cancer and my brother was just diagnosed."